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Ephraim Lewis was an R&B singer from Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England and he held the biggest promise for Elektra Records when they signed him in the early ’90’s. He started his career singing gospel music with his siblings in The Lewis Brothers. Independent Music producers Kevin Bacon and Jonathon Quarmby became his mentors and helped him get his solo deal with Elektra. They produced his 1992 debut album Skin and it had two singles, “Drowning In Your Eyes” and “It Can’t Be Forever.” The album sold modestly and the record company had plans to make him a bigger commercial success by sending him to Los Angeles to work with songwriter Glen Ballard. Unfortunately Lewis’s life was cut short on March 18, 1994 after the LAPD came to detain him because of strange behavior originating from the end of a methamphetamine binge. Lewis was naked and climbing the walls of the apartment building where he was living and the police shot him with a taser that caused him to land head first on the ground. There were early comparisons to Seal but Lewis had the potential to become his own voice had he lived. Skin is still an obscure but worthy entry into the canons of sublime soul.
